After breaking his right foot, Luis Hernandez hits a home run

US PresswireAn injured Luis Hernandez "runs" the bases after hitting a home run for the Mets.

NEW YORK — Jose Reyes tracked the ball as it rose and rose, soaring through the afternoon air Saturday here at Citi Field. Mets second baseman Luis Hernandez had just channeled Kirk Gibson. Luis Hernandez had just smacked a foul ball off his foot, fallen to the ground, fought off a team trainer and risen to hit a home run on his first swing back in the box.

Reyes watched the ball land in the right-field stands. Then he looked back toward the base paths, toward the new minor folk hero. What he saw was this: Luis Hernandez could barely walk.

“I saw him limping when he touched first base,” Reyes said after the Mets’ 4-2 loss to Atlanta. “I said, ‘Oh, man. This is not good.’ ”

Reyes’ assessment was correct: Hernandez broke a bone in his right foot Saturday. Before he swung, he convinced the team he could still play. His ungainly post-homer jaunt showed otherwise. He was taken to the Hospital for Special Surgery for observation.

“That’s an unfortunate thing,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “I guess the best way to get around the bases was to do what he did.”

Hernandez is 26. Drafted by the Braves, he’s been an Oriole, a Royal and now a Met. He played 104 games with Binghamton and Buffalo this year. Yet with Ruben Tejada slumping and Luis Castillo exiled from the field, Hernandez somehow became the Mets’ primary second baseman in August. He’s done about as well as the rest, hitting .250 in 16 games.

The Mets trailed by two runs when he came to the plate in the fifth inning Saturday. Opposing starter Tim Hudson opened the inning with a sinker for a ball. He threw another sinker, inside but in the strike zone. Hernandez spiked it off the outside of his right foot. In the on-deck circle, Dillon Gee saw Hernandez fall to the ground.

“It looked like it hurt from where I was sitting,” said Gee, who gave up three runs in his third big-league start. “It went right off his toe. Those balls really hurt.”

Assistant trainer Mike Herbst left the dugout to check on Hernandez. The two men talked. Manuel deferred the judgment to Herbst, despite Hernandez’s obvious discomfort.

“He kept saying that he could go,” Manuel said. “But every time he took a step, you could see that he was in some pain.”

No matter. Hernandez won out. Hudson pumped another sinker, this one over the plate. Hernandez cracked his second homer of the season.

He paced up the line and pulled up lame. The crowd rose for a standing ovation as he limped home. And then Manuel pulled him from the game.

“He was in a lot of pain, obviously,” Manuel said. “When he went around that way, you had to feel that there was something definitely wrong with him.”